Engagement with Pakistan will continue: US

Washington: A State Department official on Thursday said that the US would continue to work to improve its relationship with Pakistan.

"As we`ve said many times over the last couple of days and weeks, we are engaged intensively with Pakistan at all levels. That engagement will continue," the State Department spokesperson, Victoria Nuland, told reporters at her daily news conference.

The Special US Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Marc Grossman, will be there in Islamabad for talks with the top Pakistani leadership over the weekend.The US is, however, concerned about the negative public opinion about America in Pakistan.

"We look forward to continuing to try to work together on these absolutely essential issues both for their security, for our security and for the region," she said.

However, she added that the US was concerned about the negative public opinion about America in Pakistan.

"This has been one of the key focuses of our embassy in Islamabad to try to give an accurate picture to a broad cross-section of Pakistanis about all that we have tried to do as a nation to support Pakistan`s own democratic reform efforts, education in Pakistan, quality of life, micro lending, economic projects," she said.

"It`s sometimes hard to permeate, given the intense emotions about other aspects of the relationship," Nuland said.

"But as you know our civilian assistance to Pakistan, which has not been touched, is all focused on trying to strengthen Pakistan`s own efforts to grow the economy, improve and modernize education, to help more people out of poverty, et cetera. And we will continue to make those efforts to support Pakistan," she said.